Worlds Collide
by grimmkittylove
Summary: AU. Five semi-connected ItaSaku drabbles.
1. I The World We Knew

**Worlds Collide**

Part I. The World We Knew

Sakura Haruno will never stop remembering the way things used to be. Sometimes, she wishes that time had stopped when she was twelve, young, innocent, and blissfully unaware of what was to come. Back then, she had a fantastic (if a bit dysfunctional) team she'd grown to love, a wonderful best-friend-slash-rival, and knew exactly what she wanted from life. Everything made sense then. Tsunade insists that she cannot dwell on the past forever, and she knows this. She understands that she cannot get those precious moments of time back, but she can't help missing it, because most of her heart lies cold and comatose in the past. What is left of it belongs to Itachi Uchiha, because she knows that she can trust him with it. After all, his hopes and dreams died there too.

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**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto or anything related to him in any way whatsoever.


	2. II A World That Never Was

**Worlds Collide**

Part II. A World That Never Was and Never Will Be

By the time she was twelve years old, Sakura had her entire life planned out. She would becme a strong, beautiful, and wise woman, a force to be reckoned with. Naruto would finally give up on getting her attention when Sasuke realized his true feelings for her. They would marry, of course, and have several gorgeous children that they'd raise with care, then grow old and die together. Konoha would experience a long period of peace under the Sixth Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, and everything would fit perfectly into a happily ever after. The end.

She laughs bitterly at the ridiculous idea now, as she stands before Sasuke's unmarked grave. Her right hand rests protectively on her barely swollen stomach, and her left clings tightly to the bloodstained hand of her deceased teammate's older brother.


	3. III The World Around You

**Worlds Collide**

Part III. The World Around You

She has never before noticed how green everything around her village is. As she surveys the scene, she is struck by the thought that the clearing would be breathtakingly beautiful if not for the corpses littering the ground and the blood tarnishing the pure colors of the plants. In the midst of the clearing full of death, a lone figure remains standing. She knows him. Without another thought, she walks over to embrace him, completely ignoring the countless wrongs he has just committed. She cannot and will not condemn him; she known how much it must pain him to harm the village he threw his life away for. He had the right to do this, she decides. If his brother deserves revenge, then he deserves even more.


	4. IV As the World Falls Down

**Worlds Collide**

Part IV. As the World Falls Down

Everything is in utter chaos, but Sakura does not see it. She is cradling the lifeless body of the boy destined to lead her village, slaughtered by the ones her lover calls his comrades. Her fingers tremble as she traces the fading whisker marks on his face, and a strangled sob escapes her ever-tightening throat as she realizes just how cold it is. She hardly notices when he comes up behind her, his dark cloak barely brushing her back. When he touches her head, she looks up at him in despair, tears, dirt, and blood missing as they run down her face.

"Why?" she asks in choked tones, her eyes wide with her badly disguised grief. He does nothing to answer but to pull her from the ground and hold her close as their home crumbles around them.


	5. V When Faith and Fear Collide

**Worlds Collide**

Part V. When Faith and Fear Collide

His comrades find them all too soon, her with a voice raw from screaming and him with an expression of utter agony etched onto his harsh features. Luckily, he is able to arrange his face into an acceptable mask of indifference before they realize something is amiss. He is ordered to interrogate her, find out what he can, and dispose of her. She breathes a sigh of relief disguised as one of defeat, and the Akatsuki leave. When they are out of earshot, he asks if she is afraid.

"Yes," she replies quietly, "but I trust you."

Two days later, the village of Konoha declares Sakura Haruno dead. The Akatsuki assumes Itachi Uchiha to be the same. Only Naruto Uzumaki knows the truth, courtesy of a short note left to him in his best friend's will.

_Sometimes you have to die once in order to truly live. Only through the pain can you grow stronger. Oh, and strong facial lines are sexy. Get over it._


End file.
